Anime, MapleStory Guides, Game Walkthrough, Recipe, SEO and Tutorial

Dell U2515H UltraSharp IPS QHD Monitor Review

Hi guys! Today I’ll be performing a review on Dell U2515H UltraSharp IPS Monitor and share my experiences after using it for few months. This QHD 2560×1440 Widescreen 25″ monitor was released around December 2014 with SRP (Suggested Retail Price) of 400 USD (1400 MYR). Dell is one of the computer monitor manufacturers that has finally brought 2K resolution into smaller size monitor that is commonly found in 27 inch monitor and above. Before diving into the review, let’s take a quick glance over the features that this product offers and also get an overview of the technical specifications.

Intro: Size comparison between U2713HM (left) and U2515H (right). The U2515H has slimmer bezels (8mm) compared to U2713HM thick bezel (20mm). Dell U2515H is twice more vivid and brighter when both monitors are set to the same brightness contrast.

Packaging-3: On the left side of the packaging displays a list of items that comes inside the box. Cables included: Power Cable, DP cable (Mini DP-DP), USB 3.0 upstream cable. On the right side of the packaging displays the dimension of the monitor: diagonal is 635 mm (25″), width is 569 mm (22.4″), depth is 205 mm (8.07″) and height is 512.5 mm (20.18″). It also includes 2 sticky labels (the shipping address) and the serial number aka S/N and DP/N number. The two U2515H monitor I have with me is A01 Revision manufactured in January 2015 and March 2015.

Packaging-4: On the top of the box, it’s sealed with Dell wrapper with a warning label “If this seal is broken or the package is damaged, check contents before signing receipt”. It also has 5 steps shown in picture on how to extract the contents out of the box with care to avoid the monitor from accidentally drop out.

Unboxing-2: Upon sliding out the contents carefully, we finally see the monitor stand wrapped nicely with thin foam paper and also the power cord in a sealed bag. Ensure that the box flap handle on the sides does not get trapped internally as it will prevent the box content from extracting out smoothly.

Unboxing-3: Here are all the contents located on the top of the monitor. You can remove them first before taking out the monitor panel.

Dell U2515H Accessories

Accessory-1: Here is all the accessories that comes inside the U2515H box! Starting from top to bottom: the cable cover, a user guide with CD containing the necessary installation driver (which I did not use but downloaded the latest Dell Display Manager from the official Dell website), a factory calibration monitor report, and 3 cables.

Dell U2515H Design

Design-1: Unwrapping the Dell monitor reveals yet another foamy protection on the front! This pretty much provides lots of safety from scratches during shipment!

Design-2: On the rear of the U2515H, we can find a 100x100mm Vesa mount and the IO (Input Output) connection. You can purchase Dell Single Monitor Arm MSA14 to use the Vesa Mount for better flexibility in positioning the monitor. Also, you can find the Serial Number behind too! Dell customer support will require this serial number for monitor panel replacement. I noticed that my first new Dell U2515H monitor had some hard rubbing/scratches on the rear. I guess that this monitor is definitely not a new one, probably second hand?

Design-3: Taking a closer look at the IO from left to right, we can find the power, 2 x HDMI (MHL), 1 x Display Port (input), 1 x Mini Display Port (input), 1 x Display Port (output), 3.5mm Audio Jack, USB Port Type B (female), 4 x USB 3.0 downstream. Dell offers a Soundbar such as AC511 that can simply snaps snugly to the bottom of this monitor to be connected via the audio jack port. Do note that this monitor does not have any VGA or DVI connection, therefore ensure your computer motherboard or graphic card has Display Port or HDMI port in order to use this monitor! I have tested the HDMI (MHL) port with a Nvidia GTX 760 2GB and it displays 2560×1440 resolution flawlessly by default. For older graphic cards that uses HDMI below 1.4 might encounter smaller resolution of 2048×1152.

Design-4: On the rear panel itself, there is a Dell lock port (left) and a SuperSpeed aka SS USB 3.0 port (right) for your mobile devices. Dell offers a premium lock known as LP500 to secure your monitor with a carbon-tempered steel that easily attaches to monitor standard security lock slot.

Design-5: Here is the a look at the Dell Monitor stand. It uses black and silver theme. The previous Dell monitor stand is all black. What I did not really like about this new stand is the sharp corner on the front that pierces users finger when lifting this monitor up. This issue is not found in the older monitor stand as its curved smoothly. There is a serial number placed on the monitor stand too.

Design-6: To install the monitor stand to the monitor panel, simply placed the monitor panel with its face facing downwards, and gently hook the monitor stand into the 2 mini holes at the Vesa mount area. A noticeable click sound will appear to indicate its a successful lock. To remove the monitor stand, simply press the button just below the Vesa mount area and lift up the monitor stand away from the monitor panel. The bottom of the monitor stand comes with 5 anti-slip rubber padding. A blue line done with a permanent marker made by the Dell factory staff is an indicator of the monitor facing front without any swivel to the left-right.

Comparison-1: Here is a quick comparison between the U2515H (left) and U2713HM (right) size. It’s not just longer but also its much more thicker. I noticed that U2515H generates slightly lesser heat compared to U2713HM when having it turned on for couple of hours.

Comparison-2: Below is a photo with 3 different custom DPI (100%, 125% and 150%). For day to day usage, I used 150% for both 25 and 27 inch monitor. 100% font is really small and causes eye strains when viewing monitors for a long period of time at a distance more than 1 arm’s length.

Dell U2515H Orientation: Landscape and Portrait

Single Monitor

Single-1: Dell U2515H Landscape mode with maximum height adjusted! It goes higher than Edifier R2730DB Studio Monitor speakers! The width of this 25″ monitor is similar to having 1 full size keyboard and 2 regular mice, while 27″ monitor width is similar to 25″ monitor with another added mouse (3 mice in total)

Single-3: Dell U2515H Portrait mode with maximum height adjusted. With this height, its similar to Dell U2713HM with minimum height adjusted. It’s pretty high and does strain my neck a little when viewing up closed, especially when you need to find those Internet browser tabs.

Single-4: Dell U2515H Portrait mode with minimum height adjusted. With this low height, it makes it a sweet spot for reading long documents in browser or PDF reader. However, you need to be careful of not having sharp objects near the bottom of the monitor stand as you might scratch it. It’s best to leave some gap between the monitor and monitor stand.

Dual Monitor

Dual-1: As you can see from the photo, the Dell U2515H can be rotated either left or right side to be portrait mode. For older Dell widescreen monitor such as U2713HM, it can only be rotated left side only. This makes it really flexible for monitor rotational method.

Dual-2: Here is another perspective of the dual landscape U2515H monitor with 4 documents opened up simultaneously. I prefer this orientation much more since websites commonly uses 1280 as their website width while the 1440 height resolution gives ample space for vertical viewing.

Dual-3: This portrait and landscape setup for U2515H provides users greatness of both worlds. Users can view lengthy documents on the portrait monitor for referencing, while their landscape monitor will acts as the main for watching movies/gaming or video-audio editing that requires long horizontal width.

Dual-4: Dual Dell U2515H in portrait mode. Best if you are only using for reading documentation, e-book, PDF, etc. You can watch movies or TV shows with it, but its preferable with triple monitors though. For gaming, you might get annoyed with the bezel located at the center. I tried to align as best as possible but the gaps persist due to the rotational swivel that does not align 100% vertically straight.

Dual-5: With dual portrait widescreen monitor, you can also view 4 documents in this orientation too but it seems too crowded. If it’s just text without much images, it’s still bearable. I would recommend to have 1 browser per portrait monitor since 1440 resolution split into half which is 720 resolution doesn’t provide much space for most website width.

Dell U2515H User Experience

When I first got my Dell U2515H monitor and turned it on, I was pretty shocked that it was so yellowish as a whole. I wondered how did Dell factory calibrated the monitor. Spending approximately 30 minutes tweaking the Color Preset using Custom Colors, I had managed to get it close to 95% white. The images were so much sharper-crisper compared to my U2713HM. However, when I started working using my Image Editor, I noticed there is a yellowish tint on left side of the screen. Instantly, I ran other applications that has a white background such as Notepad++ and FireFox browser with Google Search. To my horror, I noticed a dirty dark yellow tint formed at the bottom of the screen and yellowish tint smearing on the left side of the screen. Googling on this issue turns out that a few Dell U2515H owners reported this yellow tint issue on tech forum, but the reviews from verified customers on Amazon doesn’t seem to encounter this issue at the point I received my monitor.

Another issue that I found out is the Dell U2515H daisy chaining via the Display Port 1.2 out. How I setup the daisy chaining is having Dell U2515H mDP to DP connected to the graphic card while the Dell U2713HM hooked up to Dell U2515H using DP to DP cable via the DP out. When I powered up my computer (the fans were spinning in my computer rig), both monitor shows “No Display Connected”. Turning on/off the monitor nor plugging the cable out from the graphic card does not help in resolving this issue too. I had to manually force to restart my computer in order for the monitor display to work.

After reporting this issue to Dell customer service center, the customer support requests me to provide the necessary details (e.g. Serial Number) and also some photo of the monitor yellow tint via e-mail. Next, the customer support responded that they will do a 1-to-1 replacement. Remarkably, the monitor replacement is done within 2 business days which is a good experience! They also provide me some flexibility to return the monitor 1 week later after I confirmed everything is alright on my side. I had to repackage the yellow-tinted faulty monitor and store it into the box that the replacement monitor came in that had a green label with instructions on it. No extra charges on my side for the courier shipping! Strangely, the monitor replacement I received was manufactured in January 2015 with the same Revision Number A01 but does not have serious yellow tinting than the first one I had which was manufactured on March 2015.

After using the Dell U2515H monitor in different orientation, I found it best to use it in landscape. For dual monitor, landscape is still much preferred. Reason being, with a 2560×1440 resolution, it provides much more real estate for 4 documents. 2 documents side by side in each monitor, with 1 document using 1280×1440 space!). I feel that triple landscape monitor is a little bit overwhelming as I would need to move my neck/eyes more. However, triple portrait monitor will be much better as it does not take up as much horizontal space compared to a dual landscape monitor.

I also learned that purchasing the same monitor size preferably the same model either from Dell or other reputable manufacturers is important so it can be used to watch movies or play games with equal width and height stretched out. Another important factor to be considered is the bezel. Bezel is the black border that goes around the monitor. The slimmer it gets for the bezel, it will be a less of a distraction in watching TV shows/movies that uses both sides of the monitor.

Dell U2515H Video

Dell U2515H Dual Portrait Ultrasharp Monitor

Dell U2713HM vs U2515H Landscape Widescreen Monitor

Dell U2515H Verdict

The Dell U2515H UltraSharp Monitor gets my recommendation and thumbs up. If you are looking for a flexible monitor that comes with a superior monitor stand (capable of swivel, rotate with height adjustment), slim bezels (8mm), uses IPS panel, costs almost half of 27 inch monitor, superb warranty and provides QHD 2K 2560×1440 resolution, I highly recommend you to get this monitor without second thoughts. It’s great for office work hands-down. However, I need to highlight that it does provides less of an immersive experience for users who plans to watch movie/TV shows or gaming on it. Personally, what matters to me most is the QHD 2K resolution. This allows me to have multiple documents opened for reference when working on blogs, office work and image editing with Photoshop. Another thing I would like to point out is the yellow tinting issue. You might encounter the same issue as me if you are to purchase this monitor or any Dell UltraSharp monitor, so be prepared to fork some time to resolve this issue with Dell’s Customer Support within 30 days to get a 1-to-1 new replacement else outside that period, they might send a refurbished model instead. Below is a list of pros and cons that I list out to summarized my findings of this Dell U2515H UltraSharp monitor after using it for few months.

Pros

Slim Bezel: The slim bezels measuring 8mm in width makes it suitable for placing dual monitor side by side in portrait mode.

Portrait Mode: 25 inch is the sweet spot for portrait mode. It does not strain user’s neck when viewing the monitor with 1 arm’s length away. Great productivity for office work especially documents containing lots of text such as e-book, blogs or Google Search or list of items.

Crisp and bright: Everything from text to images, all are made crisp and sharp with this QHD 2K resolution packed in this 25 inch monitor compared to a 27 inch.

Cooler: Dell U2515H generates less heat compared to Dell U2713HM.

Smaller: If desk space is a constraint, this 25″ inch makes it a suitable monitor for QHD viewing without sacrificing the screen resolution. Having 2 U2515H in portrait mode is same as having one U2713HM monitor in landscape.

Dell 3 Years Warranty Premium Replacement: The 1-to-1 replacement U2515H monitor came in 2 days after I gave a call to Dell Customer Service Center regarding the yellowish tint that plagued half side of my monitor and also the bottom with darker yellow tint.

Lighter: The packaging which includes the monitor, monitor stand and accessories weights approximately 6kg, making it much easier to transport to different places in a vehicle.

Difficulty aligning multiple monitor: It’s a miss or hit aligning monitors in the same portrait mode. It will still have some gaps either the top or bottom. Found out that was the issue with the rotational behind the U2515H.

Poorly calibrated monitor from Dell Factory: Both the first monitor and replacement monitor has full yellow tint on it. After I have manually calibrated the color through the “Custom Color” preset, I still notice a slight yellowish tint on the bottom (for the replacement monitor) and half screen (for the first monitor). I’m unsure whether yellow tinting is the standard for Dell’s calibration. Based from Dell’s Monitor calibration report, it displays a higher blueish color but I don’t see it in the monitor.

Yellow tint: The monitor replacement still has some slight light yellow tint when viewed at certain angles, but not as worse than my first monitor that reached me. I foresee that I’m one of the few customers who received on of the bad batch monitors.

Daisy Chaining Issue via Display Port 1.2: Encountered an issue with daisy chaining with Dell U2515H and Dell U2713HM where it only displays “No Display Connected” upon powering up my computer. It seems that after replacing the monitor, this issue has disappeared. Previously, this issue appears 2-4 times per week.

Non-tactile OSD Buttons: Dell U2515H uses touch-sensitive buttons to open the OSD (On-Screen Display) Menu. Therefore, it’s a little bit of a hassle to find for the buttons which aren’t lit up even though the monitor is on. If you are in a dark room, it’s even more difficult to find them. I would much prefer these buttons tactile type and located at the rear of the monitor instead on the bezel to allow slimmer bezel for 2-5 monitors setup. I enabled “button sound” via OSD to provide feedback on the modification I performed is done successfully.

Tiny Text: When viewing text documents on Dell U2515H at 100% DPI, the text is very small, which causes eye strains when viewing the monitor afar which is a need when viewing multiple monitors. Need to increase the DPI to either 125% or 150% to solve this issue.

Dell U2515H FAQ

Q1: Does this come with an HDMI cord? Or only a power cord?
It comes with these 3 cords: The power cord, The miniDP to DP cord and USB 3.0 standard-B to standard-A. Note that Macbook Pros have mini-DisplayPort connections but call them ThunderBolt. This miniDP to DP can only pass video and audio signals but not data.

Q2: Does is rotate to portrait orientation?
Yes

Q3: Will this be able to have two systems (PS4 and PC) attached at the same time?
Attached yes, it has multiple ports. You will be able to connect both HDMI and Display Ports. You’ll have to manually select which system you want on the screen. However I don’t think it can do picture-in-picture or split screen, if that’s what you’re asking.

Q4: Does it have a VESA mount? I cannot tell from the picture.
Yes, it does, but I must say that I was pleasantly surprised by the standard base. Much weightier and more adjustable than expected. It is VESA capable. The base/arm removes giving access to a VESA 100x100mm (4×4 inch). Hidden by stand’s attachment plate. The U2515H User`s Guide says: VESA mounting holes (100 mm x 100 mm – behind attached VESA Cover). Use: Wall mount monitor using VESA-compatible wall mount kit (100 mm x 100 mm).

Q5: Would it work on my Macbook Pro Mid-2010? If yes, on what parameters?
Yes it should. The monitor comes with a mini-display port to display port cable which is nice. The laptop should be able to handle the native 2560 by 1440 resolution.

Q6: Dell Tech Specs say the screen is “Anti-Glare with hard-coating 3H.” What exactly does that look like? Is it glossy, semi-glossy, or straight glass?
I am not an expert in different types of screens, but there is absolutely no glare. Dell is using a new screen coating and it’s exceptional. It is a mix between glossy and matte. In a light room it doesn’t have any glare at all, and yet the colors are nearly as clear and vivid as a glossy panel. The best of both worlds. It does not reflect anything that is around me, it’s smooth like glass but has some kind of coating on it.

Q7: Is this monitor IPS or PLS?
This is an IPS panel.

Q8: Does this monitor work with a macbook pro retina mid 2012? what adapter?
You can connect your macbook with Thunderbolt and HDMI ports. One more thing, the monitor has a function to adjust the screen for Mac so everything work good. Don’t expect that the display is sharp as the display on your Retina Macbook Pro but for price $400 USD or more depend on where you bought, it really worth.

Post navigation

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Comment

Name *

Email *

10 thoughts on “Dell U2515H UltraSharp IPS QHD Monitor Review”

GenePost authorOctober 18, 2016 at 8:25 AM

@stanley: I have 2 Dell U2515H monitors with me. Both uses different settings to look similar (26 brightness and 35 contrast) vs (11 brightness and 50 contrast). This is with the color mode “cool” AKA white-blue.

GenePost authorOctober 18, 2016 at 8:23 AM

@John: Sorry for the late reply. The C3X Speakers can be purchased from Lelong Online or could be purchased from Viewnet in Digital Mall.

GenePost authorOctober 18, 2016 at 8:22 AM

@chiefgul: The Dell U2515H monitor scaled correctly when Windows 10 sets the display settings scale from 100% to 150%. When this setting is changed, the native resolution of 2560×1440 will be similar to 2048×1152 resolution. Images, fonts, icons on desktop/Sony-Vegas/Microsoft-Apps will be slightly larger which is easy to the eyes when the monitor is viewed from far. I do not have the 3DS Max and Maya installed but I believe this changed will also be applied to those applications.

stanleyOctober 17, 2016 at 11:28 PM

hi, brightness/contrast you set how many is perfect for out eye?

chiefgulJune 28, 2016 at 6:37 PM

Hi you say that you work also Photoshop.
Does it scale correctly at 150% Win 10 scale?
And if it does how much more real estate compared to the standard 24inch 1080p monitors?
Also have you used any 3d programs like sony vegas , 3ds max , maya etc

thanks

JohnMay 3, 2016 at 1:38 PM

Hi..!!
i want to ask you … did you purchased edifier c3x speakers online or at any retail in kl?coz ive tried to call edifier malaysia there is no answer.. sorry out of the topic …

GenePost authorApril 3, 2016 at 9:47 AM

Both 25 inch and 27 inch monitor at 2560×1440 resolution is pretty small. However, this can be easily solved by changing the size of text apps and other items by +50%. For Windows 10, right-click on your desktop -> under “Display” -> Move the scroll bar to 150% under the “Change the size of text, apps and other items”.

JoseMarch 29, 2016 at 7:30 PM

I am interested in the U2515h.
I will use mainly for my work (Computer programming).
I have doubt know how to see all the text with 2K resolution, because I am very concerned if I see all too small in 25 inches.
Because of this I am also interested in the U2415 instead … someone can advise me? Thank you!.

Hi!
I will be travelling to Europe on September and i’m thinking on buy it and bring to Argentina!
Can you give me the sizes of the box, i need to check if i can travel with it on cabin Airplane!
Thanks a lot!!

Search for:

Ayumilove Greetings

Welcome to ayumilove.net! Leave a comment on the article if you spot mistakes or would like to share some info not shown here or notify if guide is outdated or missing something! Please consider whitelisting ads here to support this website! You can also support me via Patreon too. Click here to contact me via e-mail.